Tuesday, 17 September 2013

At GDC Europe, Far Cry 3’s creative director Patrick Plourde let slip that he and his
Far Cry partner and lead writer Jeffrey Yohalem were working on a brand new IP called Child of Light. Inspired by J-RPGs and built using the UbiArt framework, the game looks incredibly promising. At Ubisoft’s Digital Day, we not only got some hands-on time with the game, but also had a chat with writer Yohalem.

Monday, 16 September 2013

One of the nicest surprises to arise from the European Game Developers Conference this year was that of the new game coming from the lead designer and lead writer of Far Cry 3. Indeed, the new title that Patrick Plourde and Jeffrey Yohalem have been working on came as a somewhat big shift in direction after last year’s jungle-based shooter.

Child of Light was pitched as an interactive poem, and it really does seem just that. The whole game plays out in rhyme, with all of the characters who inhabit the game world speaking in a strangely poetic manner. If that wasn’t an interesting enough starting point, the game is also somewhat of an homage to Japanese Role-Playing Games, and the early Final Fantasy titles in particular. And all of that is wrapped up in a lovely UbiArt-designed package.

Friday, 13 September 2013

The UbiArt framework has won widespread acclaim for its use in Rayman Origins and, more recently, Rayman Legends. But for some time now, gamers and critics alike have been asking the question: Wouldn’t UbiArt be great if used for other, non-Rayman titles? At the Ubisoft Digital Days event this week, Ubisoft came out with two brand new UbiArt IPs and a definitive answer – yes, yes it would.

One of those brand new titles is also looking to defy the conventions of the war-game genre. Firstly, Ubisoft Montpellier have opted to tackle the far-less fashionable topic – in gaming terms at least – of the First World War. It has always seemed a more difficult conflict to translate into a game than the Second World War. But more importantly than that, the development team have avoided the all-too common wartime shooter genre, or real-time strategy, and Valiant Hearts: The Great War is actually a puzzle-based Adventure Game. It was proposed that the best way to tackle the subject of death was through a story-driven, personal game.

Sunday, 8 September 2013

Disney seem to be on somewhat of a retro kick lately, what with the recently-released DuckTales Remastered and now this – a re-imagining of classic MegaDrive title Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse. Of course, one of these was developed by Capcom and the other by SEGA, but Disney itself must have some interest in re-living the past glories of the company in video game form.

Whereas Duck Tales was exactly what it said on the box, a re-mastering complete with updated graphics and sound but maintaining the gameplay and level structure of the original, the developers who put together Castle of Illusion take a little more creative freedom with their game. Although many factors and features remain from the original 1991 game, SEGA Studios Australia have used that title as a jumping-off point.

Saturday, 7 September 2013

KingArt may well have been responsible for one of my favourite adventure games of the last few years, the Book of Unwritten Tales, but as so many developers have found out, not everything that one touches turns to gold. With The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief, the development team certainly made a strong start.

The freely downloadable or browser-based prologue was a stylish and atmospheric introduction to the world. We learnt who The Raven is and some of those most concerned with bringing him to justice. Then there was the first episode, which was quite well-received, and further established what we could expect from the series. Unfortunately, with Chapter Two, entitled Ancestry of Lies, the series takes a somewhat major misstep, and the flaws that perhaps could have been over-looked in the first entry in the series are now far too obtrusive and obvious to ignore.

Friday, 6 September 2013

When you look at Disney games today, you can easily expect to find the exact same title on any platform of your choosing. That wasn’t always the case, however, and in the early nineties rights to produce Disney titles were split in a genre-specific manner. SEGA produced their own Disney titles for their Mega Drive, Master System and Game Gear consoles – which lead to the very popular Castle of Illusion, just to name one (which of course has received an HD remake just this month). At the same time, Capcom were producing titles featuring Mickey and Co. on Nintendo systems.

This was great for gamers in terms of variety – so you had a real choice of different titles to play – but also a shame because those gamers who didn’t have access to multiple console formats would undoubtedly miss out on fifty percent of the titles, whether they were good or bad. One of these games that saw a Super Nintendo release, but never went multi-platform, was The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse. And whilst the game may not have been as challenging as its Mega Drive counterpart Castle of Illusion, it was certainly a lot more inventive.